memory_alphafandomcom-20200223-history
All Our Yesterdays (episode)
Kirk, Spock and McCoy are trapped in a planet's distant past, where Spock finds love with an exiled woman. Summary Captain Kirk, Spock and Doctor McCoy transport down to the planet Sarpeidon to warn the inhabitants that their sun, the star Beta Niobe, is about to become a supernova. The three of them are surprised to find out that there are no inhabitants of Sarpeidon remaining. In the Sarpeidon library they encounter Mr. Atoz, the librarian, who tells the men from the Enterprise that the planet's population was warned about the nova, and has escaped by traveling into the planet's past using a time portal called the Atavachron. Kirk and McCoy are intrigued by the library, and start exploring the discs which link the library to the planet's past. Kirk is viewing a disc of an era that resembles 17th century England, while McCoy is viewing one of the Sarpeidon Ice Age. Kirk offers to evacuate Atoz, but Atoz tells them to hurry up and pick a destination, and that he himself plans to join his wife and family when the nova comes. Suddenly, a scream is heard coming from the outside of the library portal. Kirk runs to it, and is transported to the era of the disc that he's just seen. Spock and McCoy immediately follow, and appear in a frozen waste. As it turns out, Spock and McCoy have traveled five thousand years in the past when the planet was still in an ice age. On the verge of freezing, Spock and McCoy are discovered and sheltered by a woman known as Zarabeth. She has been exiled to the ice age because her kinsman tried to assassinate the tyrannical leader of her time. Meanwhile, Kirk has "rescued" a woman from being stabbed with a sword by challenging her attacker to a sword fight. Only after chasing the man away does Kirk discover that the woman was a thief attempting to rob the man and that furthermore, there is no entrance back to the library. Kirk goes to the wall from which he had emerged and is able to talk to McCoy and Spock, but cannot get to them. When Kirk is arrested by the authorities for aiding a thief, McCoy and Spock ask him what is going on, and the authorities also hear the voices. The woman then betrays Kirk and denounces him as a witch, claiming that he and the "spirits" made her steal against her will. In prison, Kirk is questioned by the Prosecutor. When Kirk mentions the library, the Prosecutor becomes extremely uncomfortable. At first, he tries to maintain that Kirk might indeed be innocent. But when the guard insists that he heard voices talking to Kirk, he is forced to back off. When Kirk then starts repeating the word "library" to the Prosecutor, the Prosecutor gets flustered and rushes out, saying he wants nothing to do with Kirk. Meanwhile, in the ice age, Zarabeth tells Spock that the Atavachron alters cell structure and that he therefore cannot return to the future. At the same time, Kirk escapes from his cell when he grabs the guard who is trying to pour soup into his bowl, and knocks the guard out. When the Prosecutor comes to take Kirk to the inquisition, Kirk realized that he is also sent from the future, and threatens to denounce him as a witch if he does not help Kirk. The Prosecutor then informs Kirk that the Atavachron alters cell structure and brain patterns to prepare people for the past. The Prosecutor has been prepared and cannot return without immediately dying, but when Kirk says he wasn't prepared, the Prosecutor tells him that they must get him back to the future immediately. If he has not been prepared, he can only survive a few hours in the past. Kirk then finds his way back to the brick wall from which he emerged, and steps back into the library. Atoz insists that Kirk be prepared, and Kirk is forced to lock one copy of him in a closet and knock out another. The real Atoz then arrives and stuns Kirk. In the ice age, Spock's personality is beginning to change. He falls in love with Zarabeth and believes her when she tells him he cannot go back. McCoy notices the changes in Spock (especially when Spock responds to an insult by grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and announcing "I don't like that") and guesses that Zarabeth is not being completely truthful in order to keep Spock with her. Spock also begins to notice that he is not himself after he eats meat and enjoys it. However, even with this knowledge in hand, Spock continues and proceeds to tell Zarabeth that she is beautiful and embraces her. While kissing her, he then begins to further emote and smiles. Meanwhile, Kirk has managed to recover enough from the stun blast to avoid having Atoz wheel him into the Atavachron. He overpowers Atoz and forces him to help him locate Spock and McCoy by trying various disks. McCoy has begun to realize that it is only Zarabeth who cannot return, and confronts Spock with this fact. When McCoy also confronts Zarabeth and tries to force her to admit the truth to Spock, Spock grabs McCoy and flings him against a wall with his hand around McCoy's neck. McCoy then asks Spock if he's trying to kill him and if that's what Spock really wants. Spock angrily asserts that this is impossible for him to be acting like this because he's a Vulcan. McCoy reminds Spock that the Vulcan he knows won't exist for another five thousand years and then asks Spock what's happening there at this very moment. Spock remembers his ancestors at that point are warlike barbarians and McCoy tells Spock he's reverting to the ways of his ancestors, five thousand years before he was born. Spock says he's lost himself and does not know who he is anymore. He then asks Zarabeth if it's possible for them to go back. She says she doesn't know but McCoy says he's going to try to find the portal because that's where his home is. Spock agrees finally to go with him and Zarabeth accompanies them as well. When they find the area where they came into the past, (and they did so by hearing Kirk call out through the Atavachron to them), Spock can't bring himself to leave Zarabeth alone in the past. But she tells Spock that if she were to return she would die. Kirk calls to McCoy and Spock and tells them they've got to come back, that it's almost time for the supernova. Spock tries to send McCoy on ahead but McCoy can't go through. Mr. Atoz realizes that they can't come back separately because they went through together initially. Finally, Zarabeth turns and leaves them behind and Spock reluctantly goes with McCoy back through the portal. With everyone back, Atoz puts in a disc and rushes to join his family before it is too late. Kirk tells McCoy that Atoz had his escape well planned, and that Kirk is glad he made it to where he was going. He then begins to call the ship. Spock tells McCoy that there's no need to watch him anymore, that he has returned to the present. McCoy tells Spock that it did happen though, and Spock agrees, but that it was five thousand years ago and Zarabeth is dead now, dead and buried, long, long ago. On Kirk's communicator Scotty tells Kirk "it's now or never." Kirk orders them beamed up and Enterprise taken to maximum warp as soon as they're aboard. The landing party is beamed up and the Enterprise warps out of orbit just as Beta Niobe begins its supernova explosion and Sarpeidon disappears. Log Entries *''"Captain’s log, stardate 5943.7. We have calculated that Beta Niobe will go nova in approximately three and a half hours. Its only satellite, Sarpeidon, is a Class-M planet, which at last report, was inhabited by a civilized humanoid species. Now, our instruments show that no intelligent life remains on the planet."'' *''"Captain’s log, stardate 5943.9. People of this time believe in witches, and witchcraft is what I've been accused of. Five witnesses heard McCoy's voice speak to me and thought it was an evil spirit. From what I know of witchcraft trials, I don't have much chance unless I can get to the prosecutor."'' Memorable Quotes "You're very late!" "You're a very agile man, Mr. Atoz! Just how many of you are there?" : - Atoz and Kirk "You stubborn, thick-headed Vulcan!" : - McCoy "Wiiiiitch! Wiiiiitch! They'll burn ya!" : - The Mort in her cell "I'm game, love. Lead and I'll follow. Where's library?" : - The Mort "Think, Spock – what's happening on your planet right now?" "My people are barbarians… warlike barbarians." "Who nearly killed themselves off with their own passions. Spock – you're reverting back to the ways of your ancestors… ''five thousand years before you were born!" : - '''McCoy' and Spock "I'm behaving disgracefully. I have eaten animal flesh and I've enjoyed it. What is wrong with me?" : - Spock "I don't like that. I don't think I ever did, and now I'm sure." : - Spock to McCoy "We're in a wilderness of arctic characteristics!" "He means it's cold!" : - Spock and McCoy, talking to Kirk through the atavachron "Away, away spirit! And let honest men approach." : - The Constable, on hearing Spock and McCoy's voices "Where are you from?" "An island." "What is this island?" "It's called 'Earth'." "I know no… Island Earths. No matter. Continue." : - Kirk and the Prosecutor Background Information Story and Script * The title for this episode is from Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5, line 22: "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools/ The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle." Other episodes with titles from Shakespeare are , , and . * Story outline, "A Handful of Dust" , had Spock and McCoy trapped in a desert wasteland, with McCoy dying from the desert heat when the pair was captured by misshapen humanoids, and there was no Zarabeth. Kirk was trapped in a period which resembled San Francisco's Barbary Coast, but returns to the library with another time traveler. At the end the time traveler who helped Kirk destroys the time portal. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy flee the building and it ages to a hollowed ruin behind them. Kirk picks up a tattered book and it literally crumbles to dust in his hands. http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/articles/a_handful_of_dust.htm William Shatner later starred in a short-lived TV series called Barbary Coast. * A scene in the story draft that was cut would have had McCoy "stuck" in the time doorway, with part of his body in the present and the rest in the past. * Mr. Atoz's name is a word play – a librarian named "A to Z." Author Jean Lisette Aroeste was a UCLA librarian at the time she wrote this script. * Spock's claim that Vulcan is "millions of light years away" from Sarpeidon seems impossible. The was thrown only 70,000 light years away from Federation space in , which at maximum warp, would take seventy-five years to return to. If Spock's claim was true, the Enterprise would never be able to return to Vulcan (or Earth, for that matter) again. Perhaps Spock intended to refer to another unit, or was referring to light years based on a Vulcan or Sarpeidon year. (Though only from these informations it would be impossible to decide whether Amok Time or Caretaker is right and which episode contradicts the canon, it should be noted that our galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years wide, which indicates that the Voyager episode is right.) * It is possible that Kirk's description to the prosecutor of Earth as an island was a tribute to the science fiction film . * According to the stardate this episode is chronologically the last of the series, even though its production number and air date are earlier than . Cast * George Takei (Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) and Walter Koenig (Chekov) do not appear in this episode. James Doohan (Scotty) does not appear on screen but has several voice-over lines. * Mariette Hartley (Zarabeth) was not allowed to show her belly-button in this episode, despite the appearances of other navels in previous episodes. To comment on this censorship, Gene Roddenberry gave Hartley's character two navels in his pilot, "Genesis II", stating that "the network owed me one." Sets and Props * The interior of the Enterprise is not seen in this episode, making this the only episode of the original series in which none of the action takes place aboard the ship. * The brief sword fight scene is the only outdoor shot in the series after . * The stock footage showing the endless snow fields on the disc McCoy watches was also used as the surface of Exo III in . * The atavachron device is the reused prop of Gary Seven's computer from . * The floor of the Sarpeidon library is identical to the floor of the asylum on Elba II in . Other Information * David Gerrold joked at a 1986 Star Trek convention in Spokane, Washington, that the inventors of the compact disc got their inspiration from the data discs used in Mr. Atoz's library. is generally credited with inventing the compact disc three years prior to this episode in 1965, ending up with a total of 22 patents for various aspects of it. * Bantam Books published a series of novelizations called "foto-novels," which took photographic stills from actual episodes and arranged word balloons and text over them, to create a comic book formatted story. The sixth installment was an adaptation of this episode. * briefly references the fact of Enterprise's presence near Beta Niobe when it began its supernova explosion. * The novels Yesterday's Son and Time for Yesterday are non-canon follow-ups to this episode, concerning a conceived child of Spock and Zarabeth named "Zar." * File footage of Toronto City Hall can be briefly seen in this episode. It appears again in . Production Timeline * Story outline by Jean Lisette Aroeste, . * Revised story outline, . * First draft teleplay, . * Second draft teleplay, . * Final draft teleplay, . * Revised Final draft telepay * Filmed in late December 1968 Remastered Information Image:Sarpeidon.jpg|The new Sarpeidon Image:Beta Niobe.jpg|Beta Niobe, just before nova Image:Beta Niobe nova remastered.jpg|''Enterprise'' escapes The remastered version of "All Our Yesterdays" aired in many North American markets during the weekend of . While the episode required very few new effects, the planet Sarpeidon was given a CGI-makeover as was its sun, Beta Niobe. When that star goes nova at the end of the episode, dramatic new effects were inserted into the episode, based upon photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. http://trekmovie.com/2007/04/19/image-from-remastered-all-our-yesterdays/ Video and DVD releases * Original US Betamax release: . * UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 40, catalogue number VHR 2436, . :This volume is a three-episode tape to close out the series. * US VHS release: . * UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.8, . * Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 39, . * As part of the TOS Season 3 DVD collection. Links and References Main cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott (voice only) Guest Stars * Ian Wolfe as Mr. Atoz * Mariette Hartley as Zarabeth * Kermit Murdock as the Prosecutor * Johnny Haymer as the Constable * Ed Bakey as First Fop * Al Cavens as Second Fop * Stan Barrett as Jailer * Anna Karen as Mort References atavachron; Beta Niobe; Beta Niobe system; class M; Sarpeidon; Sarpeidon Ice Age; suicide; verism tape; Vulcan; Vulcan (planet); witch; Zor Kahn External links * |next= |lastair= |nextair= |lastair_remastered= |nextair_remastered= }} Category:TOS episodes de:Portal in die Vergangenheit es:All Our Yesterdays nl:All Our Yesterdays